This online edition was reviewed and selectively updated by William L. Andrews and Frances Smith Foster in 2011.

This abridged and updated edition of the acclaimed Oxford Companion to African American Literature presents more than 400 biographies of authors, critics, literary characters, and historical figures, and 150 plot summaries of major works.

A breathtaking achievement, it covers an enormous range of writers - from Sojourner Truth to Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison to Toni Morrison. It contains entries on major works (including synopses of novels) and also incorporates information on literary characters, as well as on character types such as Aunt Jemima and Brer Rabbit. Icons of black culture are addressed, including Muhammad Ali, John Coltrane, Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, John Brown, and Harriet Tubman. There are general articles on poetry, fiction, and drama; on autobiography, slave narratives, Sunday School literature, and oratory; as well as on a wide spectrum of related topics.

Bibliographic Information

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Print Publication Date:

2001

Print ISBN-13:

9780195138832

Published online:

2002

Current Online Version:

2002

DOI:

10.1093/acref/9780195138832.001.0001

eISBN:

9780199916498

Authors

William L. Andrews,editor

Frances Smith Foster,editor

Trudier Harris,editor

William L. Andrews is E. Maynard Adams Professor of English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Frances Smith Foster is Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women's Studies, at Emory University.

Trudier Harris is J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Subject(s) in Oxford Reference

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Front Matter

End Matter

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